Redford, Streisand May Reunite Onscreen

PARK CITY, UTAH (HNN) "Extra's" Jerry Penacoli caught up with actor Robert Redford, as he readied for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, to talk about a possible onscreen reunion with his "The Way We Were" co-star, Barbra Streisand.

While Redford said he isn't into doing sequels, per se, he did like the idea of having "The Way We Were" characters Hubbell and Katie come together after living separate lives. "Yes, to me that would be an interesting love story. To see these people -- who had this sexual passion, tremendous heat that led them into marriage -- grow apart and mature, going through separate life journeys and then coming back together again. That appeals to me a lot."

The veteran actor said he's talked with Streisand about it, and she had a good idea about the story. "We would come back together again over a situation with our daughter, who's now grown. That sort of gets in that territory that I'm talking about. That would be interesting to me, that kind of love story."

Redford admitted he didn't realize how beloved the film was until he and Streisand were on "Oprah" in October.

"You don't pay attention to that so much," the actor explained. "First of all, I haven't seen the film for a while. I saw a rough cut of it and then never saw it again, so I wasn't even sure what was in the film. And because I have a habit of not wanting to look back on things that have been done, I wasn't aware of the reaction to it so much. I knew it was considered a good love story, , but didn't know how much."

As for his labor of love, the Sundance Film Festival started 30 years ago on a shoe string budget, and now the festival generates more than $60 million for the state of Utah. "I guess what sits at the heart of it is the power of film," Redford said. "It was independent when we started it. They said it's not going to work, you can't promote it when you're not going to have trailers for the films. That's not the point, we're not in this for the commercial aspects. We're in it for the diversity. When we go through our selection process, we focus on what's the real independence, what are the fresh ideas."